“More than 5%, or about 12 million U.S. adults, could be misdiagnosed during an outpatient visit……, and about one-half of these errors had the potential to lead to worse outcomes for the patients.”

by
JONATHAN M. METSCH, DR.P.H., LLCHudson Reporter

Aug 14, 2014 | 585 views | 0 | 4 | |

A recent Modern Healthcare article http://www.modernhealthcare.com * reported on a studies which defined misdiagnoses as “missed opportunities to make a timely or correct diagnosis based on the available evidence.”

“One of the studies used in the analysis, published in March 2013 in JAMA Internal Medicine, identified nearly 70 different conditions for which misdiagnoses occurred in the primary-care setting, like pneumonia, renal failure and urinary tract infections. The other two focused specifically on cancer, including a retrospective study published in BMJ that used electronic health-record data to detect potential delays in prostate and colon cancer diagnoses; and a 2010 study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, which evaluated whether EHRs could be good predictors of misdiagnoses in lung cancer.”

“The reasons for the high numbers of “missed opportunities” are multifaceted, experts who spoke with Modern Healthcare explained. They cited concerns around various items within the healthcare setting, like the structure of outpatient systems, cognitive biases and unclear clinical guidelines. It will take more than one approach to make improvements.”

“Physicians often have eight to 10 minutes to make clinical decisions, he says, and are therefore forced to make decisions without complete information or with incompletely digested information. For example, colon cancer can easily be missed initially, he said, because patients often show up with symptoms like a stomach ache or diarrhea, which can be associated with other conditions.”

* to read the full MHC “Misdiagnosis could affect 12M U.S. adults annually, study finds” by Sabrya Rice, highlight and click on open hyperlink http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20140416/NEWS/304169948/misdiagnosis-could-affect-12m-u-s-adults-annually-study-finds&utm_source=AltURL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=am?AllowView=VXQ0UnpwZTVEdldZL1IzSkUvSHRlRU90amtvZEErSlY=&utm_campaign=am

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